The Pro-Freedom Republicans Are Coming: 131 Sign Gay Marriage Brief

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One hundred thirty-one Republicans signed an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court on Thursday arguing that marriage is a fundamental right that should not be denied to gay and lesbian Americans.

That is nearly double the number of Republicans who had publicly signed on to the amicus brief earlier this week, indicating a growing groundswell of support among conservatives who recognize the philosophic consistency of supporting the freedom to marry. Call them pro-freedom Republicans.

The coalition includes 12 current and former members of Congress, including New York’s Richard Hanna, California’s Mary Bono Mack, and Florida’s Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; 7 former governors, including Utah’s Jon Huntsman, New Mexico’s Gary Johnson, and Massachusetts’s William Weld; and 7 current state legislators. They join the 206 Republican state legislators who have supported the freedom to marry on a state basis to date.

The amicus brief carves out a clear distinction between social conservatives and the center right, a coalition that includes libertarians, neoconservatives, and former GOP administration leaders. Among the Bush-administration alumni signing the brief are Ken Mehlman, former chairman of the Republican National Committee; former Homeland Security adviser Frances Townsend; Bush chief speechwriter Mark Gerson; former Commerce secretary Carlos Gutierrez; former national-security adviser Stephen Hadley; former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christine Todd Whitman; and former deputy secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. This is compassionate conservatism.

Also interesting is the number of former Romney campaign honchos who signed on to the brief, including campaign manager Beth Myers, general counsel Katie Biber, and national counsel Ben Ginsberg. The Romney campaign, like the Bush 2004 campaign before it, supported a Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution, but it appears that there must have been internal dissension in the ranks on this issue.

Influential party donors such as Cliff Asness, Lew Eisenberg, and Dan Loeb decided to add their names, as did policy leaders such as Doug Holtz-Eakin, Greg Mankiw, and Nancy Pfotenhauer, and strategists and media figures such as Alex Castellanos, Margaret Hoover (full disclosure, my bride), Nicolle Wallace, Steve Schmidt, S.E. Cupp, Ana Navarro, and The Daily Beast’s own David Frum and Mark McKinnon. Demographic of one Clint Eastwood even decided to sign on.

Bottom line, this is an impressive list of influencers that indicates the shifting tides on this issue, even within the Republican Party. Cynics will say the list shows only limited support against the total number of elected officials inside the GOP, but this fight matters precisely because it represents a vital front in the GOP civil war that is willing to engage in one of the great civil-rights debates of our time. And contrary to social-conservative stereotypes, there is an active debate on this issue.

Backing the argument made in the Prop 8 case led by Reagan solicitor general Ted Olson and David Boies, pro-freedom Republicans argue that marriage is a fundamental individual right and a conservative virtue because it is societally stabilizing, creating a safety net that doesn’t rely on the state. In the process, they are attempting to resolve some of the contradictions between the rhetoric of individual freedom and social-conservative policies. Economic freedom cannot be the sole issue that libertarians care about if they claim to be consistent, and reconciling this policy contradiction is crucial if the GOP does indeed want to stop being “the stupid party.”

This is a fight worth watching, playing out in the Supreme Court as well as in the GOP. Presidential aspirants and sitting senators are notably absent from the amicus brief—joining this list still carries considerable political risk. Faith-based conservatives will oppose this policy on religious grounds, even as gay conservative groups like GOProud and the Log Cabin Republicans are banned from attending CPAC alongside the likes of Chris Christie. There is still a long way to go before the big tent is rebuilt after having been purposefully burned down in recent years.

But this list of pro-freedom Republicans is an important step in that direction, planting a flag in what could be one of the most important Supreme Court cases in a generation. After all, as Dick Cheney once famously said, “Freedom means freedom for everyone.”

The full list:

AMICI CURIAE

Kenneth B. Mehlman, chairman, Republican National Committee, 2005–07

Tim Adams, undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs, 2005–2007

Cliff S. Asness, businessman, philanthropist, and author

David D. Aufhauser, general counsel, Department of the Treasury, 2001–03

Charles Bass, member of Congress, 1995–2007 and 2011–13

John B. Bellinger III, legal adviser to the Department of State, 2005–09

Katie Biber, general counsel, Romney for President, 2007–08 and 2011–12

Mary Bono Mack, member of Congress, 1998–2013

William A. Burck, deputy staff secretary, special counsel, and deputy counsel to the president, 2005–09